Facts

Daniela is a mum of two daughters who is from the beautiful city Foggia in a region in Italy called Puglia.

Daniela moved countries only once so far, but since traveling is in her blood, she has been to a lot of countries already and her big dream is to move to England and live there forever😊

Although in her last profession, Daniela was a baker owning her own bakery, she did try out a whole range of jobs before that!

Early years

Daniela spent all her childhood and youth in the picturesque region of Puglia and only left for another region of Italy to start her studies of language and foreign literature. As her independence was always very important to Daniela, she started to look for a job in the meantime, but it was not easy to find one at that time.

When the opportunity came up in 1995, to do an on-the-job training to be a physiotherapist, where she would be able to earn her own money in a hospital, she decided to drop out of her studies. Unfortunately, after a while she did realize, that that kind of job was not for her, as she was feeling down to see the fates of the patients and could never shut her mind off after work.

Daniela quit the training in 1997 and started to work at the check-out in a grocery store in a big shopping mall. She knew that this job would not be forever, but for the time being it suited her independence just fine.

As travelling was a common thing for her to do in her childhood and youth – both her parents worked on trains and used to take her for little trips around Europe – after three years she was wondering if she couldn’t make that her job too!

First Passion

She applied for a job in a local travel agency in 2000 and although the owner knew her and suspected she would be a hard worker, he still wanted to test her first and see if she was made for the job…he suggested that Daniela should not quit her existing job just yet but that she should come for an unpaid trial of one to three months to his agency.

As Daniela rather likes to put her money where her mouth is, she took the risk anyway, quit her job and was hoping for the best! Her courage paid off, as only fifteen days later, the agency owner offered her a proper working contract and since then she was working for him!!

She loved her job and especially enjoyed the travelling a lot, visiting places like Seychelles, USA, Caribbean, Mexico, Europe etc. and jetting around the world. At some point though, about four years later, she was feeling a bit stuck in her development and the only way to change it was to leave her employment and open up her own travel agency!

Daniela opened her travel agency in 2004 together with a colleague and it was a huge success! They were good in business and she enjoyed being her own boss and having her dream job!

That was until the internet got bigger and people started to buy their holidays on the internet for lower prices than she and her colleague were able to offer…people started to only ask for the cheapest prices and not for their expertise anymore! It got frustrating for Daniela, as working hours seemed to extend in order to be able to compete with the internet but the income was getting lower and the profit was going against zero!

Somewhere in between, Daniela met her future husband and they got married in 2007. He was working for the army in the region of Abruzzo but they both always dreamt of living abroad someday.

After giving birth to her first baby in September 2009, she did not want to continue like this. She was not ready to lose precious time with her baby by working overtime and not even earning enough to pay the rent for the agency, so she decided to sell her half of the agency to her colleague.

Second passion

Since it still was not easy for jobs in her region in Italy, Daniela started to brainstorm what she could do, what she was good at! She did not want to stay at home, but she wanted to work normal hours to have enough time with her child and earn decent money! She knew that her cakes were always very much appreciated and a success amongst family and friends…and so she started to sell them to her friends for all different occasions.

Daniela’s friends started to recommend her and her new business idea was slowly growing! She rented a tiny house with only one room to store her baking equipment which was growing steadily and also to bake without messing up her own kitchen in her family house every time! In 2012, Daniela gave birth to her second daughter. Both girls were with her whilst she was baking and trying out new creations until they were old enough to go to nursery.

After about three years of baking, Daniela was able to make the big step of opening her own bakery in the town centre of her town in 2013!! It was a beautiful business where she was working alongside her best friend, who was a wedding planner. They worked hand in hand for weddings besides the usual trade in the bakery and it was going amazingly! Daniela had nearly forgotten about her and her husband’s dream to leave the country and anyway, why would she do that, now, when she had a flourishing business to call her own?!

Meanwhile, Daniela’s husband was sent abroad a lot, but without his family. It was hard times for Daniela, as having your own business and caring for two little children on your own is rather challenging!

In January 2018, Daniela’s husband announced that finally he received a job offer abroad, as they always wanted! Daniela was supposed to be impressed and happy, but as life has it, at that point she was unsure if she still wanted to move! It would mean that she would have to close her bakery for which she had been working so hard! She was not even sure what to think of a place called “Stavanger”!

Maybe it was faith that helped her to know what was the right thing to do. As her dad got terminally ill, she decided to close the bakery anyway in March 2018, to spend some last quality time with him…

Shortly after her dad died, Daniela’s husband took her for a look and see trip to Stavanger for a few days. At first, all of her mixed emotions made her not want to move to Norway! She was an Italian who was supposed to live in Italy and she did not want to leave her mum alone in her new situation back home, as Daniela has no siblings at all!

The few days in Stavanger though made her fall in love with that city and the upcoming possibilities, so they decided to move to Stavanger in August 2018. Mind you, not everyone was in love with Stavanger in the beginning!

Stavanger

Although Daniela and her husband saw moving abroad and learning a new language as well as seeing something different and new as a gift to their daughters, the beginning for them was not so positive!

Especially her older daughter, being nine years old at that time, was not convinced that she wanted to jump into another life without her friends and no knowledge of either English or Norwegian!

Both daughters started to attend the British International School in Stavanger and whilst her younger daughter quickly found herself some Italian friends to translate for her in her year group, her older daughter did not have such an easy start. At some point, Daniela saw herself packing boxes again to go back to Italy… When both granny’s came to visit the family in December 2018 though, also Daniela’s older daughter started to feel more comfortable in Stavanger. She understood that although she is far away from her family and friends in her old school, she still was not alone, they could still be together in their heart and visit each other!

As for Daniela, she decided that although she could be working as a baker in Stavanger, as she had received proposals, she did not want to work here. She had worked a lot in Italy in many different jobs and now she wanted to have a sabbatical (for four years) and just care and be there for her family. It had been a lot of stress in the recent years with her husband away a lot and managing the family on her own and also her dad’s death. Besides, she knew that it could be challenging for her girls to start a new life and she wanted to be there for them, to help them to overcome their struggles. She knew that if she would be working, she would not be able to be there for them as much as they might have needed her!

Now, she enjoys her family to the maximum and is very happy with her decision. Daniela still bakes, as it is her passion, but just for friends and family. She is happy when she can provide loved ones with a cake when they crave for it, as it is her biggest joy to make someone happy with her creations!

In the time, when her daughters are at school, Daniela enjoys Stavanger and its surroundings to the fullest. She is not someone who sits around and is miserable! She enjoys her life and spends her time well with friends and many things to do!

Whilst having her bakery in Italy, Daniela had a kind of blog about baking, as it was good publicity. She continued to write for it when they moved to Stavanger but eventually had to stop as she was still getting requests for cakes from her hometown!

Instead, she started a new blog on facebook last year about travelling and her adventures in and around Stavanger with her family: https://www.facebook.com/littlegoestonorway/.

Daniela has changed a lot since they moved to Stavanger, she even says that she feels like another person! She did not change her heart though, but she opened up her mind a lot and is more open to people and things now than she was before! She writes the blog to share these insights with her family and friends in order to share her experiences with everyone who cannot just go abroad and experience what she is able to experience! She wants them to be also able to see the new and different and exciting things that she is able to capture!

Daniela is thankful to have the chance to get to know a whole new culture and she is not missing Italian food or other Italian things right now. She takes Norway in with everything it gives her! She loves to try out and learn new things. Daniela always tries to see everything in a positive light and sees struggles as a challenge to overcome and learn from them!

Future

When Daniela and her family will leave in 2022, they will not go back to Puglia, but to another city in Italy and she hopes that maybe they will also have an international school there, to keep their daughter’s English up!

Of course, Daniela will start working again, as she loves working and really needs her independence! She did not tell me though, if it will be within her first passion travelling, or her second passion baking, or if she even will invent herself once more😊

Daniela will miss Stavanger, the people from all around the globe, the lifestyle and the differences to her own culture! In her heart, she is not the Italian she was before anymore, she will remain an Expat forever, no matter where she will be living!